PARLIAMENT APPROVES FDI IN RETAIL
The Indian
Parliament has approved the Foreign Direct Investment in retail. FDI in
multi-brand retail got the approval of the Lok Sabha on December 5, 2012 as the
opposition motion seeking immediate withdrawal of the decision was rejected
convincingly as BSP and SP walked out.
While 218
voted in favour of the opposition motion, 253 voted against it in the House
where 471 members participated in the voting. The total strength of the House
is 545. The House also rejected the motion seeking amendment to the rules
notified by the Reserve Bank under Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) to
enable FDI in multi-brand retail. While 254 voted in favour of the government,
224 were against.
Members of
SP and BSP, with respective strength of
22 and 21,
did not participate in the voting as they walked out alleging that interests of
farmers and small retailers had been ignored.
This was
after a gap of many years that an executive decision of the government was put
to vote in Parliament
How MPs
Voted in the Lok Sabha
22 members
of the Samajwadi Party and 21 members of the BSP walked out
• Total strength of members in the Lok
Sabha-545*
• Total number of members present and
voting-471
• Members absent from the House--29**
• 253
members voted against the motion opposing FDI in retail trade and 218 in favour
*
Including two nominated members not eligible to vote.
The
Motion in the. Rajya Sabha
The ordeal
was over for the UPA government which won the vote on the policy on FDI in
multi-brand retail sector in the Rajya Sabha on December 7, 2012 with generous
help again from the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the Samajwadi Party (SP).
Just
before the Opposition motion was put to vote, the SP walked out, reducing the
effective strength of the House by nine members. The BSP's 15 MPs voted against
the motion that 'disapproved' of the government's decision to allow 51 per cent
FDI in multi-brand retail sector. The BSP said it backed the UPA to thwart
Opposition attempts to demand the resignation of the Manmohan government on the
ground that it did not enjoy a majority. The final vote count was 102 in favour
of the motion and 123 against.
Now the
FDI policy in multi-brand retail having received the approval of Parliament,
the way is clear for the government to carry out more economic reforms without
any hindrance, though of course public opinion across the board was not in
favour of the induction of FDI in retail. Those who oppose the policy are of
the view that the implementation of the policy will adversely affect the small
retails throughout the country who constitute a sizable part of India's
population. The opponents of the FDI in retail also claim that the approval of
the Parliament was a manipulated affair by the government since those who
supported the policy in the Lok Sabha numbered only 253, 20 members short of
the half mark 273. The nation has to wait and watch how things unfold further
as the majority of parties in Parliament are against it.
